2020 TOKYO SUMMER OLYMPIC GAMES
- When: Water Polo: Saturday, July 24 – Saturday, August 7, 2021
- Men’s Water Polo: Sunday, July, 25 – Sunday, August 8, 2021
- Where: Tatsumi International Swimming Centre / Tokyo, Japan
- Full aquatics schedule
- What You Need to Know
- Stream on NBC Olympics
- Results
The men’s semifinals matches took place today, with Greece and Serbia emerging victorious. Greece and Serbia will meet for the Gold medal match on Sunday, while losing teams Spain and Hungary will play in the Bronze medal match.
Semifinals Matches Recap:
Greece vs Hungary:
Greece handled Hungary in the first semifinal match of the day, winning 9-6. Greece never trailed in the match. Hungary tied the game a few times, but never was ahead. Greece led 3-2 at halftime, before outscoring Hungary 6-4 in the 2nd half.
Greece only posted a 31% shooting efficiency in this match, which isn’t a high efficiency, but was still considerably better than Hungary’s 22% efficiency. Both teams scored more than half of their goals on extra player shots. Greece scored 7 extra player goals, while Hungary scored 4.
Greece’s Stylianos Argyropoulos Kanakakis had his best match of the Olympics today. Argyropoulos came off the bench, and only played 12-and-a-half minutes in this match, but managed to get off 6 shots in that time, scoring 4 of them. That made him the most effective offensive player in the match, despite only playing less than half the match.
Greece will meet Serbia for the Gold medal match on Sunday.
Serbia vs Spain:
Serbia mounted a massive comeback in the 4th quarter to come out on top of Spain, winning by a final score of 10-9. Serbia led 2-0 at the end of the 1st quarter, then fell behind 4-5 at half, thanks to a 5-goal quarter by Spain in the 2nd. Spain then expanded the lead, ending the 3rd quarter up 7-5. Serbia turned it on in a big way in the 4th quarter, however, outscoring Spain 5-2.
8 of Serbia’s 10 goals were scored on extra player shots, when Spain was down a player. Another goal was scored off a 6-meter shot.
Coming off the bench, Serbia’s Dusan Mandic was absolutely critical for his team. Mandic played 17 minutes, putting up 3 shots, and scoring on all 3. Moreover, all 3 of Mandic’s shots and goals came when Serbia was up an extra player, meaning Mandic made sure his team capitalized on the extra player advantage.
Serbian goalkeeper Branislav Mitrovic also put on a great performance. Mitrovic saved 10 of the 19 shots that came his way, for a 53% save percentage. Additionally, he save 7 of the 14 extra player shots that were sent to him.
Compare that to Spanish keeper Daniel Lopez Pinedo, who saved 8 of the 18 shots that were put up against him. That’s a 44% save percentage, 9% lower than Mitrovic’s. Also, Lopez saved 4 of the 12 extra player shots that were sent his way, which means he saved just 33% of such shots. That’s far lower than the 50% extra player shot save percentage from Mitrovic.
In total, there were 31 extra player shots in this match, indicating just how many kick-outs occurred. Serbia will advance to take on Greece in the Gold medal match on Sunday.
In the 5th-8th classification matches, the USA downed Italy 7-6, while Croatia best Montenegro 12-10.
Semifinal Matches Results:
Men’s Finals Bracket:
